Bulger film gives neighbor a 'rude awakening'

Larry Masidlover said he woke abruptly before 4 a.m. Monday to the sights and sounds of about a dozen production trailers for the film “Black Mass,” starring Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, arriving at the Quincy High School parking lot, located across the street from his home at 36 Edgewood Circle. The parking lot is serving as a staging area for crews while filming takes place in Quincy.

QUINCY – James “Whitey” Bulger is behind bars, but he’s still causing problems for at least one resident in Quincy.

Larry Masidlover said he woke abruptly before 4 a.m. Monday to the sights and sounds of about a dozen production trailers for the film “Black Mass,” starring Johnny Depp as Bulger, arriving at the Quincy High School parking lot, located across the street from his home at 36 Edgewood Circle. The parking lot is serving as a staging area for crews while filming takes place in Quincy.

Masidlover said the headlights from the trailers lit up the inside of his home and the noise from the vehicles kept him up the rest of the morning.

“Who was responsible for this latest disregard to residents,” Masidlover wrote in an email titled “Rude Awakening.”

On Monday, crews shot scenes for “Black Mass” at the apartments at 6 Gilson Road, a short walk from Quincy High School. Filming for the action-crime drama based on the life of Bulger, who headed Boston’s ruthless Irish mob, was expected to continue Tuesday.

The movie is being shot around the state this summer, including several locations in Quincy. Last month, filming took place in Squantum.

Masidlover said he isn’t opposed to filming in Quincy, but he wishes he had been notified in advance of the early-morning arrival of the film trailers. Masidlover said the city ordinance prohibits any construction or other disruptive commercial noise before 7 a.m.

Susan Murphy of 32 Edgewood Circle said the production trailers were “unusually loud” at about 3:30 a.m. Monday, but she wasn’t bothered by them because she was up already tending to her newborn baby.

At 90 Russell Park, the home closest to the staging area, Linda Daci said she slept through the night with no disruptions. “I heard nothing,” she said.

Christopher Walker, Koch’s spokesman, said production crews have historically been very good about notifying neighbors about film-related activity, but if there was a problem with noise or notification this time around, he said it’ll be discussed with the production company.

Several films have been shot in Quincy in recent years, including a major scene at the end of “The Departed,” the Martin Scorsese film that won the Oscar for Best Picture. The old Quincy High School was a vital location in the comedy “Here Comes the Boom.”

Page 2 of 2 - Other films with scenes in Quincy include “The Company Men,” starring Ben Affleck, “The Judge,” with Robert Downey Jr., “The Box,” with Cameron Diaz and “The Equalizer” with Denzel Washington.

This summer, a huge indoor water tank is being built at the Fore River Shipyard for the Disney film “The Finest Hours,” an adaptation of the book written by local authors Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias.

Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares was on the set of “Black Mass” Monday after being cast as one of the FBI agents who arrests Catherine Greig, Bulger’s girlfriend and a former Quincy resident. Acting is nothing new for Tavares, who played an extra in “The Way, Way Back” starring Steve Carell, filmed in Marshfield, and as an FBI agent in the Boston-based Ben Affleck movie “The Town.”